/'_/\ /'_/| | \ `\ | | | ______ | `\ `\ | | | ______ /'______/\ | |\ `\ `| | | /______/\ | ___ \/| | | |\ `\| | | | ___ \ \ | /'/ \_|/ | | | `\ | | | | | \ \/| | | | __ |_|/' `\__|/' | | | | | | | | \__/_/| | | |__| | | | \/___| |/ China News Digest | |/__/ |/ \_______/(InfoBase June 4 Collection)|_______/ May 13, 1993 **The CND InfoBase Project collects, among other China-related information, materials and/or bibliographical reference to matericals about the Beijing Massacre on June 4, 1989. Please refer to the trailer for more information. No. Subject june3-89.14t # of Lines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: CHINESE ARMY MORALE IN DOUBT AFTER BUNGLED ASSAULT ON SQUARE ........................................................... 79 2. HEADLINE: TAIWAN PRESIDENT DENOUNCES "VIOLENT" CHINESE COMMUNISM .... 53 3. HEADLINE: CHINESE TROOPS MARCH TOWARDS TIANANMEN, ARE TURNED BACK ... 86 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. HEADLINE: CHINESE ARMY MORALE IN DOUBT AFTER BUNGLED ASSAULT ON SQUARE ........................................................... 79 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: The Reuter Library Report, June 3, 1989, Saturday, PM cycle BYLINE: By Andrew Roche DATELINE: PEKING, June 3 An army assault on the student -occupied heart of Peking collapsed in an undignified shambles in the early hours of Saturday, raising fresh doubts over the loyalty and morale of the Chinese military. Military analysts were astonished by the apparently poor planning and half-hearted execution of a mission which authorities have had weeks to plan -- the recapture of Tiananmen Square from an unarmed band of squabbling pro-democracy protesters. "It can't just be incompetence. Politics seems to be involved. The army doesn't want to do this job," one Western envoy said as dawn rose over ranks of bedraggled soldiers sleeping on Peking's pavements after withdrawing from the city centre. Earlier in the night thousands of soldiers, most in their teens and some already visibly exhausted by their march into the capital, were turned back by a motley brigade of students, sympathetic workers and middle-aged housewives. The plan had been for them to encircle the square while units of the paramilitary People's Armed Police moved in to clear out the ramshackle tent community of protesters in its centre, a Western diplomat quoted Chinese military sources as saying. Disaster struck before troops even neared the area, as the lead car in a high-speed military convoy approaching from the West skidded into four cyclists on the capital's main thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, killing two. Witnesses said senior officers in the battered vehicle were surrounded by a furious crowd. The convoy turned around, some troops abandoning their buses, breaking ranks and fleeing amid the jeers of onlookers. East of the square, more than 1,000 foot soldiers were brought to a halt 200 metres (yards) from their goal by a crowd of students and citizens blocking the road. Scuffles broke out but the troops appeared to abandon their task before serious violence occurred. To the south of Tiananmen, civilians halted jeeps carrying military officers, forcing them to abandon the vehicles and weapons inside, witnesses said. "The troops didn't seem to know why they were there. They were amazed that the people didn't want them," said one Western observer. Others described confused young soldiers weeping and holding each others' hands for comfort in the aftermath of the confrontation. Crowds surrounding isolated groups of soldiers urged them to abandon their mission. "Government officials spend a year of your pay on a single banquet. Do you think they care about you?" one middle-aged man shouted at an army bus. One soldier, asked whether he would invade the square if ordered, answered ambiguously: "We are the people's army. We do not want to hurt the people." Diplomatic sources said however that a unit of People's Armed Police had successfully entered the Great Hall of the People, flanking the square, and remained stationed there after dawn on Saturday. Among the army units were troops from the People's Liberation Army's 27th division, whose commanding officers were reported last month to be unwilling to move against students. Several military leaders are believed to oppose the government's two-week-old imposition of martial law, including even Defence Minister Qin Jiwei. The timing of the assault, when the numbers of protesters and sympathetic onlookers in and around the square were at their highest for several days, appeared poor. "If someone in the army wanted to send a message to the government that a military solution to the protests is the wrong policy, this would be how to do it," one diplomat said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. HEADLINE: TAIWAN PRESIDENT DENOUNCES "VIOLENT" CHINESE COMMUNISM .... 53 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: The Reuter Library Report, June 3, 1989, Saturday, PM cycle BYLINE: By Andrew Browne DATELINE: TAIPEI, June 3 Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui denounced the "violent nature" of Chinese communism on Saturday and contrasted Peking's crackdown on student protests with Taipei's moves towards democracy. Lee was speaking on the first day of a Nationalist party congress which will set the government's agenda for elections this year when opposition parties will be allowed to compete for the first time in four decades. He said Peking, confronted by mass demands for democracy and freedom, "has bared the true face of a Communist and his true violent nature". "We will give whatever support is necessary to our compatriots on the mainland, who are related by blood to us, in their struggle for freedom, democracy and survival...until the aim of their struggle has been attained," he said. Lee was speaking just hours before troops in Peking fired teargas for the first time and fought running battles with students in a martial law crack-down. The Nationalists dropped martial law in 1987 and promised greater democracy to Taiwan's 20 million people. Elections to parliament and local government bodies in December will cap two years of political reform during which new political parties have been allowed, press curbs dropped and restrictions eased on street protests. Lee said these moves "contrast with the doom of the Chinese communist regime...which has been condemned unanimously by more than one billion Chinese who seek freedom and democracy". Since the Nationalists were driven to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland in 1949, they have presented themselves as a beacon of democracy giving inspiration to China's masses. But their propaganda was mocked by military rule. Nationalist leaders are now taking partial credit for pro-democracy protests in China, saying Chinese people are craving for the good life on Taiwan where democracy is flourishing and the economy booming. Tens of thousands of Taiwan people have visited China since the Nationalists eased restrictions on trade and travel to the country two years ago. The government sees them as ambassadors for the Taiwan way of life. The Nationalist congress is expected to review Taiwan's new policy of flexibility towards Peking in light of the student protests. The government has been concerned by unrestrained enthusiasm for China by local businessmen and travellers who are pouring in to a country still officially described as "bandit territory". --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. HEADLINE: CHINESE TROOPS MARCH TOWARDS TIANANMEN, ARE TURNED BACK ... 86 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: The Reuter Library Report, June 3, 1989, Saturday, AM cycle ADVANCED-DATE: June 2, 1989, Friday, AM cycle BYLINE: By Guy Dinmore DATELINE: PEKING, June 3 Thousands of troops marched towards Tiananmen Square early on Saturday, but furious crowds of students and ordinary citizens barred them from reaching the heart of a pro-democracy protest, witnesses said. The soldiers approached Tiananmen from all directions but got no nearer than 200 metres (yards) from the square in the centre of Peking. "Are you human? Are you Chinese? Do you have a conscience?" shouted residents who had blocked a busload of troops, and were trying to force open the windows as frightened soldiers huddled inside. The sudden troop movement in the early hours of Saturday morning was the clearest sign so far that the government intends to crack down on the student occupation of Tiananmen. Communist leaders have recently condemned the student occupation which began three weeks ago, in stronger tones, accusing the pro-democracy movement of fomenting chaos and orchestrating their own pro-government rallies. The use of troops to clear the square of its ragtag student army, whose size varies for several thousand overnight to tens of thousands during the evenings, was widely predicted when the occupation of Tiananmen by demonstrators began. But the nation's leaders are apparently still locked in a power struggle between supreme leader Deng Xiaoping and hardline Premier Li Peng on one side and on the other, Communist Party chairman Zhao Ziyang, blamed for the present unrest. Martial law, declared in parts of Peking on May 20, has had little apparent affect, and new martial law media regulations issued on Thursday ordering a virtual news blackout have been largely ignored. Troops began a four-pronged approach around midnight and were stopped on all sides within an hour or so, the witnesses said. In some sections the soldiers retreated after scuffling with crowds barring their way, while in other areas they sat with students and workers, talking and exchanging cigarettes. "We came here to restore order, we were obeying orders, people of Peking do not understand us," said one frustrated soldier near a massive hotel just to the northeast of Tiananmen. Most of the soldiers appeared to be unarmed, but at least some guns were seen in support vehicles which accompanied them, witnesses said. To the west of the square, groups of residents hurled abuse at retreating soldiers, stopping many of them for questioning, witnesses said. Some of the soldiers were carrying knives but there were no reports of their use, the witnesses added. Tiananmen itself, still occupied by defiant pro-democracy students after three weeks, remained calm. Some 4,000 students rallied to the beat of drums and exchanged reports with crowds of supporters in every direction. Commanders had apparently devised the movement of troops towards the square as a lightning manoeuvre. Witnesses reported jeeps and buses racing along the city's main thoroughfares, but none actually reached Tiananmen. About four km (three miles) west of the square, in a section called Muxidi, a police jeep reported to be escorting a convoy of military buses struck four cyclists, killing two and injuring the other two, witnesses and doctors said. That incident angered an already emotional crowd which stood guard over the battered jeep and four crushed bicycles throughout the night. At all points around Tiananmen, witnesses reported hostile crowds and bedraggled, sometimes frightened troops. At one place immediately east of the square two injured soldiers were seen, one of them being carried by his comrades. Elsewhere, emboldened mobs ripped clothing from individual soldiers, at times tearing knapsacks from their backs and rummaging through them for food. A small group of students east of the square shouted to a much larger unit of troops: "You are the people's army -- do not beat the people" +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Bing Wen in Ottawa, Canada | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | China News Digest (CND) InfoBase covers the following areas: | | History : WWII, Cultural Revolution, June 4, Olympics | | Service : visa/PR, PRC-doc, tax, insurance, travel/living | | Academics : job, conference/workshop, societies, projects | | Other : org intro, book review, community activities | | ------ * ------ * ------ | | To contribute, please send to CND-IB@CND.ORG | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+